Coherent and ambitious basic and applied research

The scientific policy of the University of Avignon is organised around two strong identity axes, " Agro&Sciences "and " Culture, Heritage, Digital Societies" This has made the institution unique in the regional, national and international university landscape and has given it a high degree of visibility in these two fields.

These areas were naturally identified according to the social, cultural and economic characteristics of the territory in which the institution is located, but also according to the partnership policy that it has been able to implement, in particular with the research organisations INRA and CNRS, with EHESS, but also with the competitiveness clusters for their role as an interface between the academic research sector and the socio-economic fabric.

The "Agro&Sciences" axis benefits in particular from a remarkable concentration of the Higher Education-Research-Innovation system, through the presence on the same site of the University of Avignon, the INRA PACA-Corsica centre and the TERRALIA competitiveness cluster. The INRA PACA-Corse centre develops its activities around 3 axes: integrated horticultural production, adaptation to global change and plant health.

The research themes developed in the Avignon area are carried out within the framework of multi-site research units and are therefore shared with other universities (first and foremost, Aix Marseille University and, to a lesser extent, the universities of Lyon and the ENSL).

As far as INRA and Agro&Sciences are concerned, they are also likely to mobilise all the research skills spread over the national territory.

A synergy of skills and resources implemented within the framework of shared institutional strategies has enabled the creation, around each of the 2 axes, of a genuine "European network". local intelligent specialisation "This is the only way to make the most of it.

The scientific policy on the "Culture, Heritage, Digital Societies" axis is based on a close partnership with the CNRS on the one hand, and the EHESS on the other. An important element of this strategy in the field of human and social sciences and computer science is the creation, in 2008, of the SFR "Agorantic", whose research fields are at the crossroads between Man, Society and Networks.

Our relations with EHESS are based in particular on the Centre Norbert Elias (CNE, UMR 8562 of which the CNRS and AMU are also co-tutelles) whose interdisciplinary research in sociology, history, anthropology and communication sciences in Avignon and Marseille is a reference. Two of the CNE's scientific axes are particularly concerned with "Political spaces and objects" and "Cultural forms and models". The CNE participates in the Agorantic research federation to develop collaborations beyond the perimeter of the human and social sciences, one of its priorities. The CNE is also a member of LabexMed (Humanities and Social Sciences at the Heart of Interdisciplinarity for the Mediterranean).